7 Pages
1703 Words

Create a new account

It's simple, and free.

Email address

Password

Login with Facebook

Human Rights Desecration in Mexico

Many Mexican women, according to Falcon (2001), have been reluctant to report these attacks because of a fear of military or government retaliation visited upon themselves or their families. Though the Fox government has worked to improve the working conditions of women and others, women apparently remain vulnerable to sexual harassment, rape, and other forms of victimization that are tacitly tolerated in a patriarchal social system (Falcon, 2001).

Zarembo (2001) contends that Vicente Fox had pledged during his presidential campaign to form a truth commission that would investigate, among other matters, the 1968 student riots and government response and the disappearance and murder of thousands of leftists in the 1980s and 1990s. However, Fox reneged on his pledge and opted instead to appoint a special prosecutor. The primary task of the prosecutor is to probe the disappearances of more than 500 leftists in the 1970s. Fox backed down on his promise because several members of his cabinet argued that an open-ended exploration of the past would worsen his relationship with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). The PRI is trying to shed the reputation that it has for corruption and human rights abuses as a result of its 71 years in power.

Fox, in taking on the disappearances, will be confronting a powerful interest: the 240,000 member Mexican military. Since the late 1920s, when the PRI was formed, the military pledged loyalty to the president in exchange for autonomy in its own affairs. As Zarembo (2001) has noted, this understanding is becoming untenable as he army assumes a greater role in fighting drug traffickers and comes under increased scrutiny for human rights violations.

Adding to the pressure on Fox is international anger over the assassination in October 2001 of human rights lawyer, Digna Ochoa Y Placido (Murder in Mexico City, 2001). The murder of Ochoa called into question the efficacy of the e...